The basic three-part framework you need to change behavior:

• Direct the Rider. Provide crystal clear direction. “What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.”
• Motivate the Elephant. Engage the emotional side. “What looks like laziness ...

Tweaking the environment is about making the right behaviors a little bit easier and the wrong behaviors a little bit harder. It’s that simple.

Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors. In short, to make a switch, you need to script the critical moves.

Too many choices can lead to decision paralysis. For effective change, limit the options as much as possible.

To shrink the change:

• Make the change small enough that you can’t help but score a victory
• Limit the investment you’re asking for
• Think of small wins—milestones that are within reach.

The brain has two independent systems at work at all times.

• First, there’s the emotional side. It’s the part of you that is instinctive, that feels pain and pleasure.
• Second, there’s the rational side, also known as the reflective or conscious sys...

• Bright spots are successful efforts worth emulating
• To discover bright spots, ask yourself: “What’s working and how can we do more of it?”
• The Miracle Question: “What’s the first small sign you’d see that would make you think the problem was gone?”
• Y...

Create a destination postcard that shows what you want to achieve in the near future.

Destination postcards—pictures of a future that hard work can make possible—show the Rider where you’re headed, and they show the Elephant why the journey is worthwhile.